Repeat-flower rose care: top picks, plus great tips on aftercare
You need the right varieties and careful nurturing if you want to enjoy consistent multiple blooms with repeat-flowering roses, says Anne Swithinbank
AGARDEN full of rose blooms is easy to achieve in June and July, but what happens next depends on both their ancestry and the care they receive. Many have the capacity to flower continuously or in flushes, and it is not unusual to find a few precious buds half-open and frosted with ice crystals come midwinter. Others are destined to flower brilliantly just the once and no more buds will appear until the following summer.
Roses have a long and colourful history, with fossil records proving they were around over 35 million years ago. Their cultivation probably started in China, and they were used and appreciated by the ancient civilisations of Greece, Egypt and Rome.
The roses first grown in Europe were almost certainly fragrant Gallicas, of which the apothecaries rose (Rosa gallica var. officinalis), thought to be the ‘Red Rose of Lancashire’, is one. They were joined by groups known as Alba and Damask, but most of these early roses flowered only once, in summer.
By the late 1700s repeat-flowering roses arrived in Europe from China and breeding work gave rise to the Bourbons, climbing noisettes, hybrid perpetuals and finally hybrid teas and floribundas.
Choosing is quite a challenge
So now we have a fabulous range of oldfashioned and new repeat-flowering roses, some shrubby, some upright and bushy, and others climbing or rambling. There are over 2,000 roses available in the UK and choosing favourites for our gardens is quite a challenge.
While I would not be without a few once-flowering classics such as tough, sweetly fragrant white-flowered Damask ‘Madame Hardy’, the lure of repeatflowering roses is undeniable. Yet even when treated to rose heaven (planted in a sunny position in well-conditioned, slightly heavy yet well-drained soil, with no competition from nearby shrubs, trees and hedges) good care is needed for plants to recover from their first flush, fight off rose diseases and remain floriferous into the autumn.
Deadheading, a judicious soaking to tide them through long droughts on drier soils, and a feed and mulch just as the first flush of blooms fade, usually ensures a long summer of roses.